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This spring marks the release of new editions of introductory economics textbooks, so it’s a good time to update our 2010 review of the treatment of climate change in economics textbooks. As in 2010, some hit the mark while others are wildly misleading, but we’re happy to say that there’s plenty of good news: about half of the books improved their treatment of climate change.

*** Ack! Please see the coda at the bottom of this post. *** If I were a sociologist I would examine the deeply irrational beliefs people having about parking. I’m serious. Start talking about meter rates or extending pay hours and you can pretty much throw logic right out the window. Exhibit A is last week’s Seattle Times story on restaurants in the Chinatown/International District. Owners allege that business is down since...

Big Coal and Big Oil know that, in their business, political friends are worth their weight in gold. An academic study of one case of corporate lobbying estimated the return on investment at 22,000 percent: a dollar spent earned $220. Jack Abramoff, the convicted, influence-peddling super-lobbyist, pegged the return on investment of one project at 100,000 percent: $4 million dollars in lobbying cash purchased a $4 billion tax break for...

On some level, most of us are in the business of behavior change—whether we’re trying to lose a few pounds ourselves or whether we’re promoting energy efficiency more widely. It goes without saying that habits are hard to break, even when someone has gone out of their way to make the better choice fairly easy. As communications guru Andy Goodman points out in his “free-range thinking” column this month, most...

Editor’s note 1/19/16: Anna Fahey’s 2012 resolution to buy nothing new for a whole year centered on a goal many of us share: spending less and saving more. She added up the costs of several everyday wallet-munchers and found that cutting them also helped curb her carbon footprint. My motivations for resolving to buy nothing new in 2012 are numerous, but chief among them is the desire to save money....

Sightline had another big year in 2011. Here are a few of the things we did that made us proud: Coal Exports: Just as Washington State makes the healthy move to phase out its only coal-fired power plant, there are efforts afoot to connect Montana coal with Asian markets—via Northwest ports. From train traffic snarls to harmful coal dust to climate pollution—the negative impacts to our communities would be immense....

Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, peer-to-peer carsharing pioneer Getaround announced a $1.7 million Federal Highway Administration grant that’ll bring the service to Portland. This guest post is by Michael Andersen of Portland Afoot, a 10-minute newsmagazine and wiki about low-car life in PDX. Michael adapted this piece from the magazine’s October cover story. When it comes to Portland next month, peer-to-peer carsharing will be ready to slice and dice car ownership...

Today the Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University released the first report from their latest national survey of the American public completed in November 2011. This time around, they zeroed in on public support for climate and energy solutions—policies with the potential to get our sputtering economy off the fossil fuel roller coaster for real. The report, Public Support for Climate & Energy Policies in November 2011, finds...

What does it take to live in Washington state? To pay for the bare necessities like rent, childcare, groceries, clothing, shoes, transport to work, telephone service, cleaning products and household items? (That’s without the additional costs of any comforts such as savings, vacations, cable TV, or the occasional restaurant meal.) A new report and this handy online calculator from the University of Washington School of Social Work researcher Diana Pearce...

Eric dP: Probably the best thing I read this week was Elisabeth Rosenthal’s Sunday NYT piece about what ever happened to global warming as a live political issue. I like these images of turning dollar bills into infographics as a way to illustrate economic inequality. Writing for the Atlantic, I thought Matthew Yglesias did a good job of capturing what’s wrong with municipally-owned parking garages: But municipal provision of subsidized...